South Carolina subcommittee OKs an education savings bill

COLUMBIA - After a year of public meetings, discussions and floor debate, the Senate gave final approval Thursday to a massive education overhaul bill.

But almost everyone agrees that's not the end of education debate in South Carolina, both in the short term as the Senate and House, which passed its own bill last March, need to hammer out their differences and in the long term as debates about spending public money on private schools, the formula the state uses to fund local school districts and other issues are expected to bubble up.

"We've got to keep the pressure on. We can't let leadership in this state let up," said Democratic Sen. Vince Sheheen of Camden. "I don't want us to move back more in education."

The Senate gave third and final reading to the 80-plus-page education overhaul bill after eight weeks of debate.

Hours before, a subcommittee approved a bill that would allow low-income parents to take the public school funding money allocated to their children and spend it on private schools or programs under what supporters call an education savings account.

Supporters said the bill and other ideas like expanded public school choice will help parents who want to get the best education possible for their children but can't get past the geography of living in a poor school district.

Opponents said private schools and programs can choose who they want, unlike public schools, which are required to educate all students. They warn of huge fights if the bill advances further.

"It would just send the wrong message if we passed legislation this year to take public tax dollars and send those to private schools with no accountability," Sheheen said.

Other long-term projects include overhauling the funding formula South Carolina uses to pay for schools that has not been substantially changed since 1977.

Lawmakers can't run local schools, but "what we do is send them a whole lot of money," said Senate Education Committee Chairman Greg Hembree of Horry County.

"This is just one additional step," said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a Republican from Edgefield. "There is so much more to do."

The key vote Wednesday released a log jam of legislation backed up after eight weeks. Senators then passed more than 20 other bills on issues from banning the shackling of pregnant prisoners to defining motorcycles for tax purposes to designating each July 16 "Atomic Veterans Day" in the state.

The Senate bill has a number of items different from the House version. The Senate bill eliminates the state Education Oversight Committee, an independent agency of educators, lawmakers and business people that handles testing and school report cards. A number of teachers have called for its demise.

It expands scholarships so more people can go to technical college for free. It gives more state lottery scholarship money to qualified education majors and gives the state more power to take over school districts and even fire school boards if their schools are performing poorly.

Both bills reach into schools of every type and grade level, from pre-kindergarten to technical schools. They both cover administrative issues ranging from standardized testing to how schools are run.

The House Education Committee will take up the Senate bill directly, probably about the end of the month, said Rep. Rita Allison, the committee's chairwoman.

The committee will meet several times, first to find the differences in the bills and later to allow the public to comment on the Senate bill, said Allison, a Republican from Spartanburg County.

It is the first chance they have had to directly speak about the proposal this year.

Allison thinks the House will change the Senate bill and the matter will go to a conference committee to hash out the differences, but that committee can get to the bill before the General Assembly adjourns May 14.

Grassroots teacher group SC for Ed, which organized a rally last May that brought 10,000 people to the Statehouse and closed some districts to call for teacher friendly changes to the law, said on Twitter before the vote Wednesday that the bill will do nothing to help educators in the classroom. The group has given a mid-March deadline to make changes or they will call on teachers to come to the Statehouse on a weekday in hopes to shut down schools.

"The walkout will continue. You had an opportunity to make meaningful change, and you failed the children of this state. It's a shameful day in South Carolina," SC for Ed posted on Twitter.

"Today proved that while politicians will stand with us for a photo op, few will stand by us.," the group said in a second post.

Sen. Brad Hutto said teachers need to take a look at the bill and see they did get some items like bonuses for national board certification and mandated break time away from students. He said the budget the Senate will take up this spring will likely include another raise for teachers and other benefits.

"Stay engaged. We value their voices," the Democrat from Orangeburg said.